Pancakes

Is there really more to be said on this subject? I wouldn’t even write about it except for the fact that most pancake recipes call for milk and eggs. So, when you don’t eat those things, maybe pancakes seem a bit out of reach.

Today I made pancakes again, but first I read what Mark Bittman had to say on the subject in How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. In addition to three basic recipes, there were a zillion (o.k. maybe not exactly a zillion) options for jazzing up your pancake experience and the handy information that the batter will keep just fine in the fridge for a few days. So, go ahead and make up a large batch and you’ll be covered for breakfast over the weekend. Or, at least the pancake portion of it. I don’t think it’s ever a good idea for your meal to consist of just bread products (sometimes mine do, I just don’t think it’s ideal). Today for instance our pancakes were accompanied by a green smoothie.

So, now for the recipe. After realizing that really I hadn’t made the same thing I was reading (not uncommon), I decided to go ahead and post what we did eat for breakfast.

In a 2 cup measure (or another bowl) combine 2 cups of the milk with the agave and oil if using. Whisk together well with a fork and add to the flour mixture. Only slightly incorporate this into the flour, then measure out the other cup of milk and add that too. You want to mix as minimally as possible, but I still use a whisk, just larger motions and less speed. A few lumps when you are done are fine.

Let the batter sit for 5 or 10 minutes and then add water as needed to obtain an pourable, but not watery, consistency.

Heat a skillet on Medium (honestly I don’t know, I just use gas and heat until it’s the right temp., water dances). If you don’t have a cast iron skillet go buy one, but in the meantime add a bit of oil or something to the pan, about 1 teaspoon. It’s my understanding that if you don’t have non-stick (I think these are scary) or cast iron you’ll need to do this with each pan full of pancakes. With my cast iron skillet I just grease it once (since after all I do wash it with soap) and then it’s good to go for the entire batch.

Pour your desired size pancakes into the pan. (I used the same two cup measure, not per pancake just for ease of pouring, mentioned earlier in the recipe). Watch for them to bubble up in the middle, the edges will cook first since they’re thinner. Flip the pancakes, cook on the other side for a few minutes, remove from the pan and repeat. If you are making the whole batch in one day, or possibly even half a batch depending on the size of your pan, you might want to have a warm oven handy to keep the first pancakes warm in while you cook the rest.

I served these with warmed (on the stove-top) Maple Syrup. But, homemade fruit syrups are of course good too.

The only down side to cast iron is the weight. Unless you look at that as an exercise opportunity/handy weapon against intruders.
Definitely worth trying out. Just be sure to season (grease it up and bake the pan, directions tend to come with them) before use. The nice thing is that if they get messed up for any reason you can just scour them out with steel wool and re-season the pan.